As a parent who has successfully raised three wonderful kids to adulthood, I am now qualified to give my readers parenting advice––free of charge.
When I was a young mother, my father said, "Don't ever hit your kids, but don't ever let them think you
won't."
I tried to follow this advice, but I was never able to make my
dad's threatening face. It was the one that said, "Shape up, now!"
True to Dad's suggestion, we never spanked our kids; however, they knew we weren't going to also. As a result, we found successful discipline strategies that came in creative and silly doses. My favorite threat was the one concerning teeth. "If you don't ______________, we're not going to let you brush your teeth!"
Ooooh. This one scared our kids into doing what we wanted because what could be worse than not being allowed to brush your teeth? Furthermore, teeth brushing became a reward, rather than a fight to make them do it. Hint: Start this when the kids are young or it won't work.
Tee hee.
Another silly punishment we used involved the love seat in our den. If our kids fought with each other, they had to sit on the love seat until they learned to love each other. They had two choices: get along or have the most miserable punishment ever.
The most important parenting advice I can give is for you to teach your children to take care of themselves. Next time your child has a problem with a coach or teacher, don't be in a hurry to rush in and fix it for them. Make your child deal with the problem his or herself. They should be the one to approach the adult and address their concerns, not you. You step in only as a last resort when their attempts do not work. Knowing how to talk to an adult has been my kids' greatest life skill. Please parents, don't hover!
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10 comments:
This is some great advice. You have given me some ideals for my next blog post.
Good advice, I agree with you on letting the kids settle things, it will only help them later in life, Happy Silly Sunday :)
Janet
Very good advice! This ignited a thought in my mind. Stay tuned. I also loved that hilarious comic pic you posted in there. ROFL :)
cngrats. sounds like you avoided being a helicpoter pareent. Wish I'd thought of the teeth brusihing thing. Too late. THeyre terrble at it.
I agree all down the line. We never spanked our kids. I wanted to raise respectful, peaceful people, and somehow walloping them for their missteps seemed rather counter-productive. :OD
As parents, our biggest job is to teach them not to need us. The hope is that they will always love us and want us in their lives, but we need to raise our children in such a way that they will not just survive, but thrive without us. Anything less does them a huge disservice.
Sounds like good ways to get them to obey.
Teaching them to grow up and be ready for the real world is what parents are for. What we teach them goes with them throughout their lives. Good advice.
Have a terrific Silly Sunday. I'm off to brush my teeth. :)
The punishments are funny. :)
The last one is spot on...I've learned to do that with mine, and it makes all the difference in the world.
Thanks for sharing your tips.
My girls have to hug each other when they are fighting. To them, there is no worse punishment than hugging your enemy in the middle of a fight lol.
Good advice. I think my tween would be gutted if I didn't let her brush her teeth.
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